Five Biological Killers that May be Used for Terrorism

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Advanced technology affords many benefits to human beings, but it also provides instruments of mass destruction. For example, advanced biological technology may provide cures for illnesses but it also provides instruments of biological terrorism. When war involves these microscopic, deadly, biological agents, it takes on a new and frightening dimension. Human beings harnessing the power of bacteria to kill large quantities of people sounds like science fiction. Unfortunately, we now hear about use of these biological agents not only from novels, but also from the newspaper.

Biological weapons are frightening, in part, because of limited public understanding of this type of warfare. The popular and uninformed opinion on biological warfare is that huge communities of people will be wiped out in one fell swoop by fatal infections. In this paper I will answer basic questions about biological warfare to provide a better understanding of what biological warfare means and how we can defend against it. Although biological warfare is frightening, it will not necessarily lead to the destruction of life on Earth. These infections are often fatal if untreated, but people can survive the illness if they seek appropriate medical treatment.

Merriam-Webster defines biological warfare as, "warfare involving the use of living organisms (as disease germs) or their toxic products as weapons."(2) From this definition, all pathogenic organisms are potential biological weapons. Anthrax, smallpox, plague, botulinum toxin, and tularemia all could be used. Bacteria used as biological weapons are those that are deadly, cheap, and able to infect many individuals through aerosols, or canisters that propel the bacteria into the air for th...

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